of nature, as is seen in
several savage nations. Such an obstacle would have too much retarded the
rapid progress, promised by him to the first preachers of the doctrine of
his Son.

He darted from far, into the minds of men, the rays of several great
truths, to dispose them for the reception of others more important. He
prepared them for the instructions of the Gospel, by those of
philosophers; and it was with this view that God permitted the heathen
professors to examine, in their schools, several questions, and establish
several principles, which are nearly allied to religion; and to engage the
attention of mankind, by the brilliancy of their disputations. It is well
known, that the philosophers inculcate, in every part of their writings,
the existence of a God, the necessity of a Providence that presides over
the government of the world, the immortality of the soul, the ultimate end
of man, the reward of the good and punishment of the wicked, the nature of
those duties which constitute the band of society, the character of the
virtues that are the basis of morality, as prudence, justice, fortitude,
temperance, and other similar truths, which, though incapable of guiding
men to righteousness, were yet of use to scatter certain clouds, and to
dispel certain obscurities.

It is by an effect of the same providence, which prepared, from far, the
ways of the gospel, that, when the Messiah revealed himself in the flesh,
God had united together almost all nations, by the Greek and Latin
tongues; and had subjected to one monarch, from the ocean to the
Euphrates, all the people not united by language, in order to give a more
free course to the preaching of the apostles. The study of profane
history, when entered upon with judgment and maturity, must lead us to
these reflections, and point out to us the manner in which the Almighty
makes the empires of the earth subservient to the establishment of the
kingdom of his Son.

It ought likewise to teach us how to appreciate all that glitters most in
the eye of the world, and is most capable of dazzling it. Valour,
fortitude, skill in government, profound policy, merit in magistracy,
capacity for the most abstruse sciences, beauty of genius, delicacy of
taste, and perfection in all arts: These are the objects which profane
history exhibits to us, which excite our admiration, and often our envy.
But at the same time this very history ought to remind us, that the
Almighty, ever sin